


Blossom

by Missy



Category: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore
Genre: Bittersweet, Complicated Emotions, Established Relationship, F/M, Pregnancy, Trick or Treat: Treat, Trick or Treat: Trick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-12-27 21:08:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21125276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missy/pseuds/Missy
Summary: Aspects on a pregnancy.





	Blossom

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AceQueenKing](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceQueenKing/gifts).

> This is kind of a boarderline treat/trick, I hope you like it!

_The Past_

She’s a beautiful thing, bending over a blooming flower, begging it to grow up tall and strong – sounding ever so much like her mother, in spite of herself. 

“Precious,” Demeter instructs softly, “listen.” The tips of her fingers brush a wilting blossom. The baby’s big brown eyes grow wide with delight as her mother ministers to the flower. Suddenly, it transforms – from half dead to brimming with life. 

Laughter pours from little Persephone’s lips; her hands clap together in glee. Demeter smiles, as she has rarely smiled in these days since Zeus, since her estrangement from Hera.

Demeter tickles her daughter beneath the chin. Ahh. But some things are worth the pain – of birth, of death, and of struggle.

_The Present: Persephone_

Persephone is treated delicately.

It’s a gesture that runs counter to her own request, but her husband will not be put off. He’s concerned about her – about his heir as well, but his wife must be treated with kid gloves. She must be expected to walk on night flowers and treated with careful hands.

It’s as if he comes from another planet, she thinks to herself, but straighten her spine and smiles as she moves into the light. She wants her mother to know that Persephone doesn’t regret the choice she made so many months ago.

Persephone’s own emotions about the pregnancy were mixed. She wanted to have the baby, was excited about it. He wanted to be there for her, though it was possible she might have the baby at the tail end of summer, in that unreal space of time between autumn and summer, before she was required to return to her husband at the fall of the first leaf.

She will, over the summer, figure out how she feels about this extraordinary circumstance. But the last few months of her pre-pregnancy life, she would give to her mother, and gladly.

_The Present: Demeter_

She watches her daughter, swollen and ungainly, smiling, with her thick, black braid of hair, her laughter soft and cool like a summer breeze.

Demeter sits down upon the ground and calls Persephone to her. There is a handful of poppies in her hand. With a breath, she brings them back to life.

Persephone laughs. “One of your old tricks?” she asks.

“No trick,” Demeter says. “But a way of being, my child. Even in death, can life blossom.”

Persephone hums, rubbing her belly thoughtfully. 

In the space between her daughter’s sigh and her grandchild’s quickening, Demeter lay back in the tall grass and wondered what had gone wrong.


End file.
